Good doctors equal good patients

A nature-versus-nurture debate at the conference examined whether it was up to doctors to build inner resilience to cope with their jobs or whether institutions had a greater role to play.

The conference decided it was not an ‘either-or-question’, and both aspects needed to be developed to improve doctors’ satisfaction and behaviour.

Cardiff University Centre for Psychological and Disability Research senior medical research fellow Deborah Cohen said: ‘Focus on the individual at your peril. If you really want to have change, think about the [working] environment.’

She added: ‘If you focus on the individual, your gains will be small. But if you focus on the population, your gains are far greater and far more sustainable.’

Massachusetts psychiatrist and Massachusetts Medical Society physician health services director Luis Sanchez said practising medicine was a ‘privilege not a right’, and doctors had an obligation to take responsibility for their health.

‘Your care comes first’

Dr Sanchez said: ‘A good doctor has to be a good patient … In order to be an excellent physician, your care comes first … We have to know who we are, what we like, what we are good at, and what we are not good at. It’s an obligation.’

Dr Sanchez said medical students were taught about the importance of self-awareness. He added that in his talks to students, he stressed that they should resolve any alcohol misuse problems right away.

He also suggested that doctors in the workplace should take 15-minute ‘time-outs’ or short naps.

Dr Sanchez added: ‘What happened to lunch? It seems to me that for self-care and self-awareness, eating lunch every day with colleagues is a good place to start. What happened to naps? I think physicians should have two signs to put on their door — “doctors on time-out” and “doctors napping, back in 15 minutes”.’

‘One thing is missing – we don’t talk about the relationship between physicians and institutions and organisations. That’s what future work needs to focus on.’

Straw poll

A straw poll of around 350 doctors attending the session found that more than three-quarters ‘strongly’ or ‘somewhat’ believed that physicians should have an obligation to practise self-awareness to lessen stress and maintain professionalism.

Other straw poll results included:

94 per cent agreed that institutional policy was an important determinant for physician satisfaction and behaviour

85 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that focusing exclusively on self-awareness to improve physician satisfaction and behaviour was short-sighted

79 per cent agreed that doctors had to build resistance through individual self-awareness if satisfaction and behaviour in the medical workplace was to improve.